Cryptocurrencies to Watch: Week of Feb. 27

Keep an Eye on These Coins

The cryptocurrency market had a middling week, staying around current price levels. While a strong bull run that pushes up prices doesn’t look likely at the moment, the crypto market may have stabilized. Several tokens jumped in price in the latest week, as reviewed below.

This week, we examine Ankr (ANKR), Stacks (STX), Bone ShibaSwap (BONE), GateToken (GT), and Optimism (OP). In selecting these assets, we have considered several factors, including positive technical developments, significant news events, and noticeable changes in price.

Ankr (ANKR)

The Ankr (ANKR) token’s price increased by around 30%, possibly in reaction to two collaborations, with tech giants Tencent and Microsoft. The partnership with Tencent allows users to launch nodes for several blockchains, using Tencent’s cloud computing strengths. The Microsoft partnership teams it with Ankr to work on Web3 infrastructure solutions.

Through these partnerships, Ankr is expanding its ecosystem and building fundamental infrastructure that developers can take advantage of. It should offer a base from which Ankr can expand its Web3, or decentralized internet, intentions. The ANKR token started last week at 3.4 cents and is now priced at around 4.2 cents (see chart below).

Stacks (STX)

The Stacks (STX) coin rose more than 50% in price, possibly in part due to Bitcoin Ordinals’ growing popularity. Bitcoin Ordinals are a protocol that allows NFTs to be stored on the Bitcoin blockchain and are ordered and inscribed with a piece of information, such as text or an image. This piece of information makes each unique and turns it into a de facto NFT. In mid-February, Ordinal NFTs on Bitcoin crossed $100,000 in value.

Both the Stacks and Ordinals protocols allow additional development possibilities, namely smart contracts, for Bitcoin. Smart contracts, which are programs for blockchains, are popular on other networks, but Bitcoin has had limited development of them. Stacks is associated with Ordinals because its token is a payment form for Ordinals NFTs. STX was at 62 cents last week and is now hovering at around 95 cents (see chart below).

Bone ShibaSwap (BONE)

Shiba Inu’s BONE token jumped by 11%, possibly because the centralized exchange GATE listed the token. The token will serve as the gas fees token, or unit of currency used to pay for transactions, on the Shiba Inu network.

Additionally, the Layer-2 scaling solution Shibarium is expected to launch soon, and the team has also launched a portal for it. Layer-2 scaling solutions are separate blockchains built on top of the primary layer to provide speed and transaction-processing benefits. Shibarium is significant because the strategy takes Shiba Inu from its meme coin origins to become a more utility-based project. BONE was priced at $1.66 at the start of last week and is now priced at around $1.85 (see chart below).

GateToken (GT)

GateToken (GT), the exchange token of Gate.io, advanced about 10% and is now priced at around $5.37 (see chart below). The token offers benefits to users of the Gate.io exchange, which has added more users in recent months.

The price bump might be due to the fact that Gate Group has applied for a Hong Kong Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license, which would allow the crypto exchange to expand its presence and services there. Crypto exchanges worldwide are becoming more focused on compliance, as regulators tighten their oversight of the crypto market.

Optimism (OP)

Optimism (OP) posted a nearly 10% price increase over the past week. This might be due to Coinbase announcing that it would build on Optimism’s Layer-2 network. The exchange will collaborate with Optimism on its Layer-2 blockchain, which is called Base. Optimism, like other Layer-2 solutions, offers increased transaction speed and boosts throughput—the number of transactions a blockchain can process within a given time period—for Ethereum.

Developers are also finding more utility on the Optimism network. Some applications with increased use on the network are derivatives platform Synthetix and lending platform Aave. OP was priced at $2.66 at the start of the week and is now valued at approximately $2.90 (see chart below).